After existing for 46 years, the Austrian Farmers Insurance Institution (in German: Sozialversicherungsanstalt der Bauern – SVB) was merged into the Social Insurance Institution for the Self-Employed on 31 December 2019 and ceased to exist. Social insurance protection for farmers in Austria goes back further than 1974 and did not end with this reform. Over the years, the SVB has continually widened and improved its range of services, which became specialised for people working in agriculture and forestry. The following article will pinpoint the most important stages in the development of social insurance for farmers into what it is today, explain contributions and benefits, and present the available health programmes and initiatives as well as the Sozialversicherung der Selbständigen itself (the SVS), with a focus on agriculture. Social insurance in Austria is obligatory, meaning that as soon as a person takes up an occupation – either as an employee or self-employed – they gain social security coverage. As work on farms cannot be compared easily to other fields of work, the SVS offers different programmes and initiatives tailored to the need of people active in the agricultural sector or forestry.
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